Covet

OK, after this I SWEAR I'll actually get to it. But these are a few goodies I've been eyeing...

Sigh. Maybe after a few paychecks...

Busy

No other word for it. Just busy today. Mountain of laundry. Stack of job listings. Dinner (?). More emails (guess I wasn't really caught up).

This stuff will have to wait...

Today

1. Caught up on emails. Finally!

2. Took Louie to small dog park where he met a HUGE bichon, a TINY yorkie puppy, and another Westie named McDuff (amazingly awesome name).

3. Tried to be brave and pick up a roach carcass (we're talking monster size) in the downstairs bathroom but just swept him next to the traps in the shower instead. Maybe he will serve as a lesson for all others that come near.* Yech.

4. Stippled baby quilt. Pondered what to do on borders and realized regardless, I need to buy red thread.

How is it 4 pm already?

*Yes, I know. I live in NYC so there have been and will always be roaches. Gross.

De-stash

I'm slowly going through my stash and am loving the idea of fabric swaps! Check out my Flickr for my available fabric!

Techniques

As a new quilter, there are a MULTITUDE of techniques to master. At every step, there are little things to pay attention to that will add up to a pleasing final product. It's important to select fabric that coordinates (sometimes!), crucial to accurately cut (VERY important and the hardest step for me), and then layout and sewing itself. One of the more commonly used techniques in quilting is triangles and it seems that are a gazillion different ways to do them. Rachel seemed to have the most straight-forward way of doing half square triangles so I decided to do those. While my corners don't match up in all the places, I'm pretty happy with the results. At first I wasn't sure the colors would work but I definitely think a certain kind of mommy will like this:

...or maybe not. Every few minutes I go back and forth between hating and loving it.

The reason I'm working on baby quilts (no babies here and don't actually have any pregnant friends - I know, I know, I'm so young) is because I've been thinking about selling some through my shop in Etsy. I think it would be a great way to a) practice quilting - duh! b) use up some fabric since pretty soon my sweetie will go crazy with all that we have in our tiny apartment c) make some moolah (ugh, my sad little bank account!) and d) meet other great people who appreciate quilts!

But I'm *gulp* nervous and afraid no one will like them or buy them. I'm not usually an insecure person but many areas of my life are so unsettled now that the anxious monster keeps rearing its ugly heads.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Hugs?

Mutual obsessions

The virtual world of knitters, quilters, sewists, crafters, etc. is HUGE and I'm loving being a part of it. It's pretty awesome how connected you become with these people, never have met - and probably never will! - them. I also love how people offer fun stuff like tutorials, tips, and giveaways. Right now, Heather is having a fantastic giveaway on her site. Be sure to check it out.

More real world stuff to do before crafting begins. Will post more later...

Practice and Inspiration

I'm very new at quilting but am definitely ambitious about trying new techniques. With the two bees that I'm in, I'll be able to sharpen my skills and try new designs. I've been doing some playing around lately as I've been reading blogs, tutorials and joining Flickr groups. Here's some of what I've done so far.

This was the continuation from my previous post where I started paper piecing using this tutorial. I really like how this looks and could see how a quilt like this would be beautiful! I'm not sure if I'm going to make a whole quilt or maybe just a pillow?

This was my go at Oh, Fransson's! Map of the States tutorial. I just used scraps to practice so the colors aren't exactly pretty but I wanted to try it before deciding to do a whole quilt like this. I think it's a go!

My sweetie LOOOOOVES the Olympics so since it's started, we've basically had the TV on whenever events are on. This is fine with me because while I like the summer ones better, there's been some very exciting moments so far. (And who DOESN'T watch figure skating?) It's also made us want to be snowboarders! I'm not sure how this will actually go since I'm not very athletic and my sweetie (who is athletic) tends to have kluzty moments so...we'll see...maybe next winter. But I do marvel at the sport! Not to mention those awesome pants that Team USA wears meant to look like distressed jeans. How crazy is that!? Leave it to me to want to try something, especially because it has cool clothes...

Happy Heart Day!

As my sweetie and I sit here together on our new couch, I hope you're enjoying time with the ones you love too.

On another matter of the heart, Bumble Beans has started a wonderful project: collecting house blocks to make quilts for this awesome organization, Basics Inc. An organization that helps familes emerge from homelessness, she's collecting blocks to make quilts featuring this adorable pattern. I'm going to make a few and hope that you'll do the same.

Happy Valentine's Day!

(And nope, we haven't really moved from the couch. Woohoo!)

Join in here.

So far

Today so far... (as the snow does in fact accumulate)

Yum: chili, fresh sourdough, tea & honey, homemade chocolate chip cookies

Humming along: Pink Martini, Angelique Kidjo, Alicia Keys, Regina Spektor

Doings: searching this and other ones like it, snuggling with my buddy

Still on the agenda: crafting, waiting for sweetie to get home (hopefully early!), more winter wonderland...

Snow day?

After growing up in Upstate NY (read: snow on Halloween, school open with 4 feet of snow, etc.) I'm not really intimidated when the weather services all predict that lovely fluffy white precipitation. I will admit that yes, DC has been POUNDED but up here in the Big Apple, all the hype was a little silly. Take a look...

I think Louie has the right idea...

Off to do the day's regular activities. Enjoy the snow!

How much would you pay?

There's a lot of scavenging that comes with quilting, particularly for hard to find or out of print fabrics. One such designer that is always in this category is Heather Ross, as almost all quilters know. Some of her prints from "Lightening Bugs and Other Mysteries" go for $40/yard on eBay.

Frankly, in this day and age, I can't justify spending that much on fabric. While it's lovely and yes, there's always a thrill to having something rare, it's just fabric and there are so many wonderful and talented designers out there whose fabrics make wonderful quilts.

It does appear, however, that we may all get another chance to get Lightening Bugs at a somewhat reasonable price: on Spoonflower! Check out this post from Heather's blog. Seems like we might all be able to get those cute fishies after all...

More bee blocks

I finished Sarah's blocks for Bee-Stitched (yay for our first month!) and I'm really happy with them. She wanted improv-style blocks with Erin Michaels' "Lush" fabric as the focus. I added some of my own stash and was amazed at how many of my fabrics coordinated. The colors were lovely and soothing and I can't wait to see how her whole quilt turns out.

This was my first attempt at improv style blocks. At the start, I was very perplexed about it all. As a new quilter, it felt so strange to not use a pattern. I struggled a lot and worried too much about how it would look. Finally, when I just started to "go with my gut," I found it wasn't actually that hard and I really enjoyed it! I will definitely be making my own improv quilt sometime in the future.

Weekend

I woke up to a wonderful surprise: I sold this adorable bag from my Etsy shop! I've been a bad shop mommy, and have neglected my shop for a few weeks now. But that's only because I've been busy with other things. Not to mention, I've been stewing over new ideas for spring...

We didn't get much snow from this so-called storm that's pounding other parts of the East Coast. It's so funny - I move away from DC and they have one of the craziest winters! It's like I left my Upstate NY karma back in the District. Sorry guys!

My sweetie got saddled with another big project this weekend and had to head out to Queens today. I'm sad but we both knew that this first job would be like this. We deal with it because he's making decent money and it's only temporary. Still, we were looking forward to spending some time together this weekend! Hopefully he won't have to work tomorrow - too bad I will (but it's only for four hours).

So I'm going to be domestic today and cook and clean up a bit and of course do some sewing and knitting. Mmm, and I think cupcakes may be on the menu...

Oh, we did get some other wonderful news: our couch is FINALLY ready and will be delivered next Saturday, just in time for the Olympics. Yay! Ahh, can't wait! (It's the simple things, right?)

Blocks

I've just finished the blocks for Margaret's quilt for Fresh Comfort Two. She wanted slightly wonky log cabins in teals and browns. I supplemented her fabric with a few scraps of my own. They're uncut (I'm going to let her do the final chop) which is why they're not the same size. They were a challenge but I'm happy with how they turned out and hope she will be too!

I should be getting the fabric from Sarah for the first month of Bee-Stitched. She chose improv blocks (fun!) using Erin Michael's "Lush" line.

A little taste

I will post more later as I plan to do some sewing this afternoon but here's a little taste of what my fellow bee members will be seeing in the coming months in their mailboxes.

All purchased from here.

Denyse Schmidt "Hope Valley" in New Day and

Jessica Levitt "Timber" in Breeze

Playing around and challenging myself

One of the reasons that I'm REALLY excited about the 2 quilting bees I'm in is that I'll hopefully get to try some new techniques. I really like the way string quilts look and after following this tutorial, I've been playing around to practice.

Next I'm going to try some log cabins - both wonky and regular. Off to check out tutorials...

Today (only the fun stuff)

(Fabric browsing, hanging with Louie, homemade chili.)

Another one!

Yep, I've gotten into another virtual quilting bee! My mom was in one but realized she doesn't really have time so she pulled out and I took her place. They've only just started and she's sending me this month's blocks today so I'm not behind. So excited! The blog for this group is already up and running so you can check out our progress here.

Time to start thinking of blocks and fabrics...

Weeeeeeee for a bee!

I'm so sleepy but just wanted to post that I'm SO SO SO excited to be part of my first quilting bee! Can't wait! And Sarah's fabrics for February look wonderful. Follow our progress here.

Woohoo!

Starting over

I wouldn't really consider myself a perfectionist (despite being a Capricorn). I like a clean house but some dust here and there, even after the weekly clean, doesn't bother me. I'm not the most careful dishwasher (and constantly get made fun of for this by my sweetie/roommate). In all my crafting, you can usually find little errors - but that's what's makes them special! However, I've been staring at my latest completed quilt and have decided the binding looks crappy. So I ripped it all out. Yep, all of it. I realized that I cut the strip too wide in an attempt to make it easier to do machine binding for the whole process but it ended up coming out sloppy. So now I'm back to pinning it on and haven't decided yet if I'm going *gulp* hand bind the back.

Wish me luck.

Free motion

I've been working on a baby quilt (with no specific recipient in mind yet) from this pattern. It's so cute and very gender neutral with animals, all different colors, and an extremely soft orange flannel background. It's also been my second free motion quilt and I'm really getting the hang of it! I've just been stippling and while I was so nervous at first, once I got going I was fine. Here are some pics of the progress.

Inspiration

Ok, before I get back to real stuff (job search), wanted to send a wish list (and feedback prompt?) out into the void. I have a few ideas for new projects (a cover for my rolling file cabinet and some cute curtains for our bedroom) and would love to get my hands on One-Yard Wonders and Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Anyone have other suggestions for good crafting books?

Shades of gray

For some reason, I really love the combination of gray and raspberry. I'm thinking I might want to do a quilt in just those colors. I would use fabrics like these (the gray stack is from sewdeerlyloved's fabric shop on Etsy):

Virtual Quilting Bee anyone?

To any other quilters that are reading this - I'm looking to join a virtual quilting bee! Please let me know if you're hosting one and have openings or if you know of others! Feel free to comment. (After posting on the discussion page of Quilting Bee Blocks on Flickr, I've been in contact with one person who is interested in starting a bee. She, myself and one other person are in so far. Let me know if you're interested!)

We're really grown ups now

For everyone who has ever been young, broke, and living in one of their apartments/houses/etc. then you'll appreciate my post today. All through college I lived on campus, except for one semester spent abroad where I lived in a campus apartment. Since college, I've lived in two different apartments by myself, one here in the Big Apple and another one in DC during grad school. Now I'm in my third grown-up apartment, sharing a glorious 2 bedroom with my sweetie. Today we officially became grown-ups: we have our very own couch!

Now I know that you must be chuckling to yourself, as even I am, but you also know exactly what I mean. After countless futons, hand-me-down chairs, even a loaner couch from my landlord, neither of us ever had our own, brand spankin' new couch. And now, we have the first of two!

Our adorable loveseat from Macy's arrived today. The dog loved it immediately. While the couch was the highlight of the day, the rest of it hasn't been too bad! I found a few good job listings, had coffee with a college friend, and am baking cookies (how domestic!). I might get to squeeze in some quilting (check out my progress!)...

Yay!

Got the part-time retail job - starting in less than two weeks! Here's to money and clothing discounts. :)

On a totally different note...

Those of you who know me well know that I'm a voracious reader. I'll be keeping a running list on this blog of books I've read in 2010. Finished my first book of the year!

Time for some yoga, lunch, more job stuff, then maybe some sewing...

Monday

On this dreary, rainy Monday, I'm going to start the week off with a positive, sunny attitude. I will hear (something) about jobs! We're getting our loveseat delivered! I'm having dinner with friends! Hurrah!

I'm thinking of new crafting ideas too. I'm totally in love with this new fabric from Jessica Levitt:

What are you excited about this Monday?

Home sweet home

I've been living in my new digs with my sweetie and Louie the Westie for about 2 months now and we're loving the space. Last weekend my mom was here and came up with an awesome new set up that we're going to try. The short story is we live in a typical NYC apartment (=bizarre shape) but loooove homey spaces so we're off to Macy's to order a love seat. We're still waiting on our custom sofa for our living room (note: we have a fabulous 2 bedroom duplex where the second "bedroom" is downstairs and is used as our living room).Being young, new roommates, and on a serious budget (read: MAJOR student loans) we're trying to be as creative as possible. We've been lucky enough to travel a lot to incredible places so our home is filled with souvenirs and quirky things. We fortunately also have the same taste in terms of decorating and furniture!

We have a bunch of really special things around, one of which is an authentic Denyse Schmidt quilt for our bed that my mom bought us as a housewarming present. She got it on super sale on a discount housewares website. It's GORGEOUS and the dog is definitely not allowed on it. Oooh, and my sweetie's favorite colors are blue and orange (Syracuse alum).

Speaking of discount websites, I got my daily email from One King's Lane today and this rug was for sale - doesn't it look just like a Denyse Schmidt quilt?!

Anyway...so glad it's Friday even though my sweetie has to do some work this weekend. This was a pretty lame week for the job search (read: not much came up). Still waiting to hear about part-time retail work AND if I made it to second round for a real job (fingers crossed!!!)

Happy weekend!

Today

It was a quiet day spent at home today. I know that I personally like it when bloggers post with pictures so I've obliged you readers. Here are images from my day.

Louie asleep on his new (well, not really new but sent from Grandma's house) beanbag chair. He loves looking out the window (Westies need a "job").
New quilt project = yay. Lots of cutting = boo.
My not-so-bad machine binding job. Originally I wanted to half machine half hand sew this binding but then realized that I would never have the patience to hand sew it. Fortunately, after the last quilt's binding difficulties, I learned and made my binding strips bigger so the machine sewing went better than expected (pics of the finished quilt will probably go up tomorrow - need to trim threads and such).

Hope, Help and Heal

As someone who is personally and professionally invested in international affairs/conflict resolution, I'm amazed at the beautiful response of people around the globe doing what they can to help Haiti. If you're able, please find a responsible and transparent way to give. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (yay bipartisanship!)

American Red Cross

Doctors Without Borders

MercyCorps

Also, the lovely ladies behind Craft Hope have opened a shop specifically to benefit Haiti. All proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders. Support handmade AND help those in need!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I'm in sort of a random mood today. I think all this chilly weather is getting to my head (though it's practically a heat wave with the thermometer hitting 37 degrees here in the Big Apple). My sweetie's parents had the right idea and escaped.

Randoms...

1. The pipes in our apartment building are making a weird noise. It sounds like a washing machine gone wild but after calling the super he informed that in fact, it is the pipes and they're working on it. Just hope the wall doesn't explode (and I can still take a hot shower!)

2. My sweetie and I have perfected a chocolate chip cookie recipe after catching a tip on the Food Network: make the dough and refridgerate for a few days. I promise, your cookies will taste amazing! (The ones we made last week are all gone.)

3. I started free motioning on my crazy Tina Givens quilt. It's a lit

tle scary but also exciting. I'm just doing horizontal waves across the whole thing. Even after just working on a little bit, it already looks really neat!

4. 36 hours until I'm a year older. Yikes.

5. The apartment is looking better and better. I got this nifty cleaning device for the blinds in our place and it seems to help. A little. Sadly

, our couch is still (gulp) probably a month away. Oh couch, if only you knew how much we're anticipating your arrival. We're tired of sitting separately in a too-small La-Z-Boy and awkward disc chair (but the dog loves it).

6. I finished my first sweater of the season! It was the one I mentioned a few months back. I still need to put the hooks and buttons on it but I promise I'll take a pic as soon as it's completely finished. Woohoo! As for now, I'm working on this one in black:

Beginnings

Happy New Year!

I hope you rang in this new decade with style. Hard to believe it's 2010!

I will follow the general pattern of resolutions - of sorts - and other thoughts on starting fresh. Since I feel like I just had a fresh start (new city, new apartment, etc.) I'm mostly trying to focus on simple things and actually attainable goals.

1. Keep a positive attitude and take things day by day. This mostly refers to my continual frustration with finding a full-time job in my desired field. It's been - and continues to be - very hard for me not to get discouraged and frustrated about my current unemployed status. I'm also trying not to be upset about having a part-time job. Sometimes this is what needs to be done. I need to just be thankful for all the good things in my life - there are many! - and keep my chin up. Something will come along.

2. Learn to cook. Or I guess I should really say learn to cook better. I actually have a pretty good repertoire but there's always room to learn and improve.

3. Read a greater variety of news sources. This is just my nerdy self wanting to be more informed and well-rounded.

4. Run. (When it's not so cold.)

5. Develop new projects/ideas/products for LittleOliveBranch. This includes maybe quilts, sewn accessories, and knitwear. Hurray!

6. Simplify.

What are your resolutions? What are your hopes for the coming year?

Let it snow!

Happy holidays to you and yours!

A new start

I'm not really someone who believes in New Year's resolutions but I am definitely someone who believes in fresh starts. Since most of us are reluctant to embrace change, starting something completely new comes with a lot of anxiety. However, I want to resolve to not only start many new things but to be excited about them. As the new year approaches (naturally) I've started to think about all this. I have already experienced many fresh starts in the past year: learning to sew, starting my Etsy shop, learning to quilt, moving, ending my academic career (I'm trying to focus on this as a beginning, not an end), etc. I realize that even on my most frustrating days, I have a lovely life and am a very fortunate person. I am happy, healthy, and surrounded by people I love and who love me back, and have many adventures ahead. While many of us have had a tough time this past year financially, emotionally, etc. I do hope that people can take a moment and be happy and thankful for what they do have. I apologize for the cheese factor in this but it's been on my brain. I went to a friend's art show last night, her master's thesis show, and was blown away by her work. I was also blown away that despite living in different cities and at times not connecting for months on end, it felt completely normal to see her. Don't you love that? And please check out her art, it's AMAZING.

So here's to a fresh start: many new projects await, books to be read, a great job is out there somewhere...

...and she's back!

Helloooooooo! I've missed you all. But I'm FINALLY back after a long hiatus. Things have been super busy but all is good.

I've now relocated (finally!) to New York City. This had been my plan since finishing school last May. My sweetie had to start his new job in the middle of last month so after whirlwind apartment hunting, crazy traveling around the globe (unrelated, but added to the mayhem), and a big move we are here and happy and loving our new home. NYC has always been one of my favorite places in the world. I spent a lot of time here as a child and lived here for a few years before grad school and now I'm back, living in a GREAT apartment with my awesome boyfriend and our wonderful little dog.

Now if only I had space to put my sewing table...

So I realize this post isn't very focused on LittleOliveBranch but in a way it is. With the move, it was very hard to keep making items for the shop so I sort of missed out on the holiday shopping season. While it would have been nice, I feel like there's still so much for me to do regarding my products, shop, brand, etc. that I'm sort of OK with it. I had a little table set up at a craft fair last weekend but it was pretty small and sort of off the beaten path so not a lot of exposure (though had a GREAT time meeting up with old friends and making new ones). Always a learning experience.

So as we approach the new year, I will be working on my products and my shop to make it all more cohesive. I am also, as many of you know, truly a knitter (sewing is a new love!) and am seriously considering selling knitwear too. This is a MUCH bigger time committment but my skill level is significantly higher and I find that market to be more accessible. My only reluctance comes from the fact that my Etsy shop is not my full time job so we will have to see how things go. In the meantime, I continue to look for aforementioned job, more related to my academic/professional experience.

But I will always be crafting away, even if it's in the corner of our "living room."

(Note: We do indeed have a fabulous apartment - duplex with 2 full bathrooms - but as of yet only really have half a living room. Bookshelves are full, TV is set up, but we are waiting on "grown up furniture" which is supposed to arrive sometime in February. For now, it's a bit of a dorm feel but it's still home.)

She's on a roll!

...and another bag sold! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!

....and she's off!

After putting up new items, I had 2 orders! One person bought a new, awesome style and another made a request for a custom order.

Here's the new bag that sold!

Yayayayayayayayay!!!!!

Keep those orders comin' people. :-)

New items!

Yay! I'm making major progress on my fall items. Below is a preview (and a picture of my some of my leftover fabric) of some items that will be available soon in the shop. The third photograph features my first bag of original design - woohoo!

What a process

I'm guessing that for those of you who don't sew, you aren't fully aware of the the entire process, start of finish of how I make bags. I thought I'd enlighten you today!

First and foremost, choosing fabric is no small feat. Personally (as you can see from my shop) I lean toward bold, modern fabrics or fabrics with ethnic flair. Most bags that I make require about 2 yards of fabric total, which isn't very much. Other items needed to actually make the bags are magnetic snaps and lobster hooks (purchased from suppliers, usually on Etsy), interfacing to line the fabric (from a fabric store, usually Joann Fabrics) as well as coordinating thread. Then I have to choose a pattern. I'm currently in the beginning stages of designing my own bags! Right now, I use patterns that allow me to sell the finished products (usually crediting the author) and am working on designing my own, stemming from all that I've learned from the patterns I've already used. Then I have to wash, dry and iron the fabric. This is actually a nice part - there is something wonderful about simply handling the fabric! Then it's time to place the pattern, pin, and cut. I must do the same for the interfacing. Then, since I used fusible interfacing, I iron the coordinating pieces to the fabric cuts and voila! Ready to sew. As you can see, most of the work that goes into making a bag is actually prep work. The actual sewing doesn't take too long! While I sew, I like to listen to NPR or music, though lately I've been sewing in silence. I've found it's a wonderful, calming time. I'm INCREDIBLY fortunate to have a whole separate room in my house that's just for sewing and other crafts. It really makes the exercise of going to sew and meditation/escape. The room colored in a warm, soothing brown, which a couch and a window air conditioner to keep it cool.

Once the bags are done, it's time for pictures for Etsy. Stay tuned - LOTS of new items will be appearing in my shop over the holiday weekend.

Hope you enjoyed today's lesson. :-)

I've got the bug

...the travel bug, that is! I've been very fortunate in my life to have had many opportunities to travel. As a child, my family had a time share in the Caribbean, which spoiled me on warm ocean waters. I've lived in Europe and Africa and have traveled all over the US. My sweetie is heading to India this fall, as he too loves to travel. My sister is studying in Italy and we're planning to go see her in November! I can't wait!

My favorite trips have definitely been to Africa, and I have a special place in my heart for African crafts/textiles. I always loved the brightly colored fabrics and prints that are worn by many African women. There was an amazing little fabric shop near my house when I lived there that I purchased a number of bags from - and am now sorry I didn't stock up on fabric! I've purchased some beautiful African fabric from Etsy to make fall items - mostly wax prints, but am looking for shwe shwe too. Here are some previews! (P.S. No wonder I love Tina Givens - she's from Southern Africa!)